Julia with Blue Jeans On came out on the same day as Arcade Fire's Reflektor. Julia is better. Spencer's really matured and pared it down to the basics here. I really miss the glorious excess of Sunset Rubdown, but this is something new and fresh. It's just his raw, uplifting voice as he pounds away at the keyboard. Barely a drum or guitar in sight. It's a wonderful experience. A slow burn. A dreamy summer. And yeah, black is back in style.

I'm still wondering why Pitchfork hasn't reviewed it yet. They even had the full album stream on Advance. I think this would be the first WP offshoot that they didn't review if they don't get around to it.

I don't get it either. In doing a search to see if the article is up yet, I saw the first bits of some review stating that Krug has walked away from two critically acclaimed bands. This much is true. Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown are no more. Krug was at least 1/5 responsible for Wolf Parade (all right, 1/2 if you only count songwriting), and like 90% of Sunset Rubdown. I wonder where they would have been if he'd have kept at it with either of those efforts. Clearly the acclaim means nothing to him.

Meanwhile, you have bands like Arcade Fire who have the same spirit, but have fine tuned their sound. Think about it: if you looked at the state of things in 2004 when Arcade Fire first did Funeral and Wolf Parade was just awakening, would you really dream that Arcade Fire would ever go as mainstream as they've managed to go? The pretention of Arcade Fire bothers me because their sound has become so mediocre. Yes, Reflektor (the title song) is catchy as hell. But Julia will stand the test of time as something heartfelt and meaningful. And Spencer's doing it all alone now.

Definitely check out With Siinai. Goes without saying. But I'd equate it to Random Spirit Lover. So yeah, Julia would be his Dragonslayer, too.

Dan Boeckner, teasing us, playing This Heart's On Fire with Japandroids earlier this week in Canadia. Do we know if Dan and Spencer hate each other now or just got really into doing their own things? Clearly, Dan still has some love for the old material, but I'm wondering if the inevitable reunion tour is gonna be strictly for the money or if its gonna be for the love of playing some of their best work together again (and the money). Either way they are getting my money.

Thanks for this thread btw, it got me into Handsome Furs and then Wolf Parade a few years back. Sound Kapital and Apologies in particular were a pretty big deal to me for a (not-so-good) stretch of time.

No problem. This is great, thanks for the heads-up. I'd heard about Operators a few days ago, but didn't realize they played This Heart's On Fire. One of Wolf Parade's best songs. Their live act was amazing. Saw 'em twice. Miss 'em greatly.

As for Dan & Spencer, probably just a matter of doing their own thing, growing artistically, and growing apart. Almost as sad is his splitting with Alexei. I can't get over how great a duo they were onstage as Handsome Furs.

Dan Boeckner's new project is Operators. They performed on KEXP and it was amazing. Their EP, creatively titled EP1, is out now.

Spencer Krug is at it again, too. He holed up in Helsinki for a while and came out of it quite changed. I miss Sunset Rubdown greatly, but he's definitely branched out and created a unique body of work in Moonface alone. Here's a vid from his new EP, City Wreckers:

I'm still mourning the loss of Handsome Furs (had 3 of their songs played during my wedding) but already had a chance to see Operators once and they're pretty great.

Seeing them live was like crazy deja vu as Dan's new beau looks strikingly similar to his Alexi but the addition of live drums adds something cool to the mix. Not crazy about the EP yet but looking forward to what they do next.

Logged

Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Operators EP is doing its best to fill the void in my heart left by Handsome Furs. True and Start Again could definitely grow into classics. I'm looking forward to hearing a proper album. Also I'm really loving the new, post-Divine Fits Spoon record.